Microsoft Retirements 2026: Every Sunset That Affects PMOs
Four Microsoft retirements with primary-source-confirmed dates landed in 2026, each one a separate cut to the legacy PMO stack. This page lists each, what it changed, who it affected, and the honest migration path now. The headline event was Microsoft Project Online, which retired on . The two July events ended the on-premises Microsoft PM stack on the same day, and the April event removed SharePoint 2013 workflows from production.
Project Online retired on . The .mpp and Project XML files you exported still import.
2026 retirement timeline
Four PMO-relevant Microsoft retirements with confirmed dates, ordered chronologically. The Project Online retirement was the load-bearing event. The two July 14 events (SharePoint Server 2016 + Project Server 2019) ended the on-premises Microsoft PM stack in one operations window, and the April event removed the SharePoint 2013 workflow runtime that many PWA deployments depended on.
| Date | Product | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| SharePoint 2013 workflows | Jump to details → | |
| SharePoint Server 2016 | Jump to details → | |
| Microsoft Project Server 2019 | Jump to details → | |
| Microsoft Project Online | Jump to details → |
Dates sourced from Microsoft's published lifecycle policies. See the Project Online service description for the canonical statement of the September 30 retirement.
Why these retirements matter
The 2026 retirement set was structurally different from the routine end-of-life announcements Microsoft has shipped over the past decade. Three reasons it still shapes what a PMO does next:
First, the headline product had no in-place upgrade path. Project Online customers could not upgrade their tenant to Planner Premium; the underlying data models (SharePoint-based vs Dataverse-based) are different enough that no managed upgrade was offered. Every Project Online customer picks a target platform whether they want to or not, which makes the decision strategic rather than tactical.
Second, the successor's PMO depth is materially lower. Planner Premium is positioned as a PM tool but the design centre is task management with project veneer. PMOs that actually used Project Online's depth, enterprise resource pool, formula-driven custom fields, costed timesheets, multi- project capacity views, will find none of those at full depth in the successor. That forces a genuine evaluation of third-party platforms rather than a default "stay with Microsoft" decision.
Those gaps are worked through in full: the task ceiling, timesheets, stage gates, resource capacity, portfolio management, custom fields, reporting, and earned value, each with the Microsoft position checked and dated rather than asserted.
Third, the dependent surface is broader than the product itself. Project Online was a PMO data substrate for over a decade. Power BI dashboards, Power Automate flows, custom .NET integrations, Excel workbooks with OData connections, SharePoint Designer workflows, every one of these broke at retirement. Rebuilding those is usually a larger budget item than the seat-cost migration itself.
“Enterprise-Grade Project Management with a Modern AI-Powered Collaborative Edge”
It combines enterprise-grade project management features like Gantt charts, dependencies, and portfolio management with a modern AI-powered and collaborative experience. It feels like a strong modern alternative for organizations moving away from Microsoft Project.
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Manager · Small Business (50 or fewer employees)
Per-event details
Each retirement below: what happens technically, who's affected, and the honest migration path. Each card links to the canonical companion blog post and the relevant pillar guide so you can go deeper without leaving the migration story.
Microsoft Project Online
What happens
Project Web App (PWA) sites stopped accepting requests, the OData reporting endpoint went with them, and the Project Server SOAP API was decommissioned. Custom fields, formulas, timesheet history, and Enterprise Resource Pool data are no longer reachable from the tenant. Microsoft committed to no read-only window, grace period, or post-retirement retention, so what you exported before September 30 is what remains. Your project sites are ordinary SharePoint Online sites: they were created through Project Online but they are SharePoint content, so they and their document libraries were not part of this retirement. What went is the scheduling engine, the resource pool, and the enterprise custom fields that only Project Online could render.
Who's affected
Every PMO that was running Project Online. Microsoft offered no in-place upgrade path, so every customer moves to a successor platform. Heaviest impact: PMOs with multi-project portfolios, formal governance pipelines, costed timesheets driving billing, or Power BI dashboards built against the OData feed.
Migration path
Three honest options: Microsoft Planner Premium (the rebranded Project for the Web) for light teams, Onplana or another modern PM platform for PMOs that need scheduling + governance depth, custom build for engineering-heavy organisations with idiosyncratic needs. The .mpp and Project XML files you exported import into Onplana with their dependencies and custom fields. The Complete Migration Guide breaks down each path with cost ranges.
Microsoft Project Server 2019
What happens
On-premises Project Server 2019 reached end of extended support on July 14, 2026. Microsoft stopped shipping security updates, bug fixes, and compatibility patches. No Project Server 2026 or 2029 successor has been announced, the on-premises Project Server product line ends with the 2019 release. The date lined up with SharePoint Server 2016 EOL because Project Server 2019 runs on top of it; the two products shared a lifecycle.
Who's affected
Government, defence, healthcare, financial-services PMOs running Project Server 2019 on-premises for data-residency or sovereignty reasons. Two and a half months before the cloud Project Online retirement, July 14 was when the on-premises Microsoft PM stack ran out of vendor support.
Migration path
Microsoft's recommended upgrade is to Project Server Subscription Edition (SE), the supported subscription-licensed on-prem successor, or to Project 2024 LTSC Professional / Project 2024 Professional for single-user (non-PWA) scenarios. For sovereignty-required workloads that can't move to Microsoft's cloud, a self-hosted third-party PM platform is the alternative, Onplana ships a self-hosted option on Enterprise+ plans.
Consolidated migration paths
Across the four retirements, the migration options collapse to four patterns. Most PMOs end up picking one for their flagship Project Online migration and applying the same target to the smaller adjacent events.
Microsoft's successor (Planner Premium / Project for the Web)
Fits if your PMO uses light task management and you're committed to staying within Microsoft 365 licensing. Gaps to verify before committing: enterprise resource pool, costed timesheets, formal governance, deep custom fields. The Onplana vs Microsoft Planner comparison covers each gap concretely. For the full Microsoft Project SKU map (Plans 1/3/5, Planner Premium, Desktop, Server SE, LTSC 2024) with decision tree + renaming history, see Microsoft Project licensing 2026.
Onplana
Fits PMOs that need scheduling depth, enterprise resource pool, costed timesheets, AI risk detection, and formal governance preserved across the migration. Native .mpp / MSPDI import preserves the dependency graph and resource assignments 1:1. Free plan available. See our case for Onplana for the full positioning, or the round-up of alternatives to Microsoft Project if you are still comparing the field rather than one product.
Third-party PPM (Smartsheet, Workfront, etc.)
Fits if you already have a relationship with the vendor or a specific feature requirement their tool fits. Watch the all-in TCO, many third-party PPMs price the resource-management module, portfolio analytics, and timesheets as separate SKUs.
Custom build / open-source stack
Fits engineering-heavy organisations with idiosyncratic needs. 12–18 month build, 1–2 FTEs to maintain. Treat as becoming a PM software vendor in your cost model.
For the full vendor-neutral playbook (timeline, the five paths above with cost ranges, pre-migration checklist, validation), see the Project Online Migration Complete Guide. For what your exports carry and how they import, see the export guide. For the resource-model migration in detail, see resource capacity planning after Project Online.
Start with the free tools
Four free, no-signup tools to plan the move in real data rather than vendor talking points.
Schedule Health Check
Upload a .mpp file, get an 8-point audit of critical-path bottlenecks, resource overallocation, and dependency cycles. No signup.
Migration Cost Calculator
3-year migration cost estimate across six categories. Calibrated by org band. Output in a format you can drop into a CFO business case.
Inventory Checklist
35-item pre-migration inventory for Project Online tenants. Captures the downstream surface most teams underestimate.
PMO Maturity Assessment
15 questions across process, tooling, governance, risk and reporting. Worth doing before you choose a replacement, so you know which gaps it has to close.
Frequently asked questions
The questions PMOs ask most often about the 2026 retirement set. Full FAQPage schema is embedded so these surface in Google's "People Also Ask" feature.
What's the biggest Microsoft retirement affecting PMOs in 2026?
Microsoft Project Online, which retired on September 30, 2026. Every other 2026 retirement in the PMO space is secondary by impact. Project Online has the largest installed base, the most-coupled downstream systems (Power BI dashboards, Power Automate flows, custom .NET integrations), and the fewest like-for-like replacements. The complete migration guide covers the move from the files you exported.
Did Microsoft extend the Project Online deadline?
No. Microsoft said publicly and repeatedly that the September 30, 2026 retirement date would not be extended, and it was not: Project Online retired on that date. Microsoft had already announced the successor product (Planner Premium) and allocated its engineering organisation to it.
Is Planner Premium a real replacement for Project Online?
For light task management with small teams, yes. For PMO-grade work (multi-project portfolios, enterprise resource pools, costed timesheets, formal governance, deep custom-field engines) Planner Premium is materially weaker than Project Online was. The platform-by-platform comparison covers the specific gaps. PMOs that ran Project Online in earnest typically need a peer-class platform like Onplana, not a step-down.
Is it too late to migrate off Project Online?
Not if you exported. The export was the part that stopped being possible: when Project Online went, the PWA sites and the OData feed went with it, and nothing recovers data that was not taken out. The migration is the unhurried part: a .mpp or MSPDI file you already hold imports with its dependencies, custom fields and costs whenever you are ready. Budget six to ten weeks of focused effort for a 50 to 200 project portfolio, or three to four months for a larger or multi-PWA deployment, and run it from the files. If you exported nothing, the export guide covers what can still be recovered.
What happens to our Power BI dashboards built against Project Online?
They broke at retirement. Power BI dashboards that read the Project Online OData feed stopped refreshing when the feed went offline, and so did semantic models built on the Reporting Database. Rebuild them against your target platform's API during the migration; a typical complex dashboard takes 3–5 days of senior BI analyst time, so multiply by your dashboard count. If the target is Onplana, its read-only OData feed uses Project Online's own ProjectData entity and column names, so many reports are re-pointed rather than rebuilt.
Can we keep using Project Server on-premises?
Only on Project Server Subscription Edition. Project Server 2019 extended support ended on July 14, 2026, along with the SharePoint Server 2016 it runs on, and Microsoft has not announced a Project Server successor after 2019. Two paths from there: upgrade to Project Server Subscription Edition + SharePoint Server SE (Microsoft's supported on-prem path) and continue running Project Server, or migrate off Microsoft's PM line entirely. Regulated PMOs with sovereignty requirements increasingly evaluate self-hosted third-party platforms, Onplana ships a self-hosted Enterprise+ option.
What about Microsoft To Do, OneNote, and the other adjacent productivity tools?
No major sunsets announced for To Do, OneNote, or Loop in 2026. The four primary-source-confirmed 2026 events are PM-stack-specific: SharePoint 2013 workflows (April 2), Project Server 2019 and SharePoint Server 2016 (both July 14), Project Online (September 30). The current evidence is that Microsoft is consolidating PM tooling under the Planner umbrella while leaving general productivity tools on their existing trajectories.
How do we know which Microsoft integrations our PMO depends on?
Look at what stopped. Every external system that read OData, the Project Server SOAP API, or the SharePoint REST API for the PWA site broke on September 30, 2026: SharePoint Designer workflows from years ago, Excel workbooks with live OData feeds owned by finance, third-party connectors set up via Zapier. If you kept an export of the audit log, it lists them; otherwise the reports and flows people say stopped working are the list. Each one needs a rebuild against the new platform.
Did Microsoft provide a managed export tool?
No. No managed export service was offered. The official path was for tenant admins to use the OData APIs, PowerShell / CSOM, and SharePoint export tools to pull their own data before the cutoff. The export guide covers what each export format carries and how it imports.
Where should we start if we're just learning about this?
Start with the complete migration guide (sections on timeline + 5 paths + costs). Then run the schedule health check on a representative project to see how clean your current data is. Then run the migration cost calculator for a 3-year budget number. That's the typical first-meeting sequence (informational depth → data quality → budget), and it surfaces the right next steps without committing to a platform.
The date has passed
Project Online has retired. What can still be recovered?
The service is gone and the reporting feed with it, so anything that reads Project Online live no longer works. What you exported beforehand is unaffected and still imports in full. If you exported nothing, the practical question is what your organisation kept elsewhere.
What stopped
- The Project Online service itself, and the Project Web App site your PMO signs in to.
- The OData reporting feeds, which is what Power BI dashboards built against Project Online read.
- Onplana's Estate Assessment and its live OData import, because both read that same feed.
What is unaffected
- Every .mpp and MSPDI XML file you exported, forever. Our file import reads the bytes and never contacts Microsoft.
- Microsoft Project desktop, which is a separate product and is not part of this retirement.
- Project Server Subscription Edition, Planner and To Do, also outside the scope of it.
- Anything already imported into Onplana, which stopped depending on Project Online the moment it landed.
- The Power BI and Excel reports themselves, if you re-point them. Onplana serves a read-only OData feed under the same ProjectData entity and column names, on every plan, so a report is re-pointed rather than rebuilt. Columns Project Online had and Onplana does not are the mapping work that is left.
If you did not export in time
Check for exports taken by someone else before the date, and for .mpp files sitting on project managers' machines, which is where most organisations turn out to have more than they expected. Any of those import in full. Where a project exists only as a Power BI extract or a spreadsheet, our Excel and CSV import will take the task list, though the dependency structure will not be in that data to recover.
Which PMO are you?
The retirement is the event. The practice is what moves.
Project Online retired on September 30, 2026. The .MPP and XML files you exported still import with dependencies, custom fields and costs, including baseline cost, and the practice you are rebuilding is the same one: demand intake, stage gates, resource capacity, baselines, earned value, and the audit trail behind them.
- Aerospace & defense
- Government & public sector
- Banking, financial services & insurance
- Energy & utilities
- Pharma & med-tech
- Healthcare & telecom IT
The retirement is done. The move is yours to time.
Project Online retired on September 30, 2026. Onplana imports the .mpp and Project XML files you exported, with full critical path, AI risk detection, formal governance, and self-hosted deployment for PMOs that need to move without losing depth. Free plan covers full Gantt; paid plans start at $7/seat/mo.
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